Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Parkway scores a run in 10th to knock off St. Henry

By Ryan Hines
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Parkway's Emily Crowell, 8, reaches third base safely as St. Henry's Brittany Bayles, left, fields the ball during Monday's Midwest Athletic Conference contest at Shane's Park in Rockford. Parkway scored a run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 5-4 victory over St. Henry. The Panthers are the only unbeaten team in the MAC and in first place.

ROCKFORD - The only two teams without a loss in the Midwest Athletic Conference softball race squared off on Monday afternoon at Shane's Park in Rockford.
Parkway rallied from a two-run deficit in the sixth inning and then benefited from a pair of St. Henry errors in the 10th inning for a 5-4 victory.
Panthers head coach Mark Esselstein knows that it's too early in the season to predict a MAC crown for his team.
"All that today's win does for us in the league race is make us 2-0 and it lets us control our destiny," said Esselstein. "The MAC is something that we really want obviously, but there's a lot of season left with a lot of good teams remaining. Anyone can beat anyone in this league and we know that."
Parkway (5-3, 2-0 MAC) was able to knock off St. Henry (9-3, 3-1 MAC) by manufacturing a run in extra innings with a little help from the Redskins' defense.
With one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Parkway's Megan Ketchum reached base safely on an overthrow at first base. A Lindsay Shellabarger groundout allowed Ketchum to reach second base with two outs.
It looked as if St. Henry was going to push the game to the 11th inning when Katlyn Smith hit a routine grounder to shortstop. The throw to first base was in the dirt and the umpire ruled that the ball was bobbled allowing an aggressive Ketchum to score all the way from second base.
"We teach the girls with two outs and when they are second base to get great jumps and keep trucking until the play is over, especially on plays to first base because you never know what might happen," said Esselstein. "Megan hustled the whole way and we were fortunate that there was a bobble at first base."
St. Henry head coach Josh Link disagreed with the umpire's ruling and felt that the play at first base should have been called an out instead of the seventh error of the game by the Redskins.
"From my angle, I'm confident that we had the ball in time for the out," said Link. "I know that the ball was bobbled but she recovered in time with the ball in her bare hand for the out. It was a great game with a lot of momentum swings for both teams with offense and defense. Just wish we could have come away with a win."
The Redskins were in the lead for most of the game with leads of 2-1 and 4-2 before Parkway plated a pair of runs in the sixth inning.
Parkway nearly won the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, but an umpire's obstruction call at third base wasn't enforced and the game continued.
"I think that our girls really showed a lot of guts today with the way that we were able to come back twice today against a very good St. Henry team," said Esselstein. "I thought that we had the game won in the seventh inning on the call at third base, but it didn't happen that way. We just kept battling back and got the win."
The Panthers are back in action today with a road trip to Russia while St. Henry will be back in MAC action with a road contest against Marion Local.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Parkway's Jamie Guggenbiller gets a bad hop on a ground ball during Monday's MAC contest against St. Henry at Shane's Park in Rockford.

Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Parkway's Emily Crowell, back, watches St. Henry second baseman Rachel Borgerding, front, throw the ball to first base for an out during their Midwest Athletic Conference contest on Monday afternoon at Shane's Park in Rockford. Parkway won the game 5-4 in 10 innings.

Additional online stories on this date
County to institute new $20 fee to residents' tax bills
ST. MARYS - The city has received the final payment from the county in settlement of the landfill lawsuit, which was concluded in 2007.
Council me [More]
A day after the NFL Draft, Todd Boeckman finally got the call he wanted to hear.
The St. Henry native and Ohio State quarterback confirmed that he will head to the Cincinnati Bengals training camp later this week for a tryout for a spot on the training camp roster. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Contrary to previous reports, the city of Celina is not required by the state to hire two different people for positions associated with the downtown revitalization project.
Parkway school district voters will see a five-year, 1.5-mill permanent improvement levy on the ballot May 5. This is a renewal of the levy, which brings in $121,580 annually and if passed, will continue to generate that amount.
Mercer Health board of governors recently approved a policy to protect their patients from various forms of identity theft.
The policy was approved
COLDWATER - It is the year for street replacement and repair in the village of Coldwater as two major street projects get underway this summer.
The
Spring planting is busy time for producers; dangerous time on roadways
With sunny, warmer weather finally here, farmers will be taking to the local roadways in greater numbers as they undertake spring planting.
Unfortunately, that means an increased possibility of farm machinery-related traffic accidents.
MINSTER - After scoring 21 runs in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, the Celina Bulldogs were hoping to keep the bats hot against a solid Minster team that scored 15 runs in its last contest.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
One Division I college signee outdueled another as St. Henry defeated Versailles with a 3-1 Midwest Athletic Conference decision on Monday in Darke County.